Is Your Toddler Swearing? Mine Sure Is
If you're like me, you grew up in a household where swearing was a big no-no. According to my mother, only classless adults with little intelligence resort to cursing when expressing themselves. Contending that my siblings and I were bright and in fact not adults, Mami assured us we should not test what our punishment would be if she caught us using foul language.
Swearing had now become this forbidden fruit. And I wanted to bite it! I clung to the idea of not getting caught. If I didn't get caught I could say all the naughty things. I was in fourth grade dropping F-bombs left and right. My peers thought I was so cool the way expletives rolled off my tongue.
I was living my best bad girl life until I let a "sh*t" slip out during a Mario Kart match with my brother. I'd gotten too comfortable and let swearing become second nature. Long story short, I got a chancla (house shoe) to the butt and was restricted to my bedroom for a week.
When I became a parent I thought if I didn't make a huge deal about bad words, there wouldn't be much allure and they wouldn't care to be little swear monsters. What's the appeal if your parents don't think it's awful?
Apparently all the appeal. My 3 year old always finds a way to insert F-bombs and "damn it!"s without so much as a flinch. Worse, he sounds adorably hilarious doing so. I can't keep a straight face when I try scolding him, which encourages him to keep going. He loves making me laugh.
Any parents struggling with this? I'd love to hear your stories, especially if you've found a way to curb their language. Taking all suggestions!